Dialed Back
by shadowfalcon13
Summary: When close to death, Ash realizes everything he did wrong on his journey. Arceus decides to give him the chance to try again. Now Ash is doing things differently, but will he figure out that he isn't the only one with problems. Rated T just in case. First story.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo, Creatures, Game Freak, and Satoshi Tajiri.**

Prologue

 **(Pallet Town Hospital)**

….. _Beep….._

Ash had been a fool.

Here he was, on his deathbed, feeling himself getting weaker every passing moment, waiting to take his last breath at any second, and he hadn't even accomplished his one true goal in life: To become a pokemon master.

Throughout his journeys, he had captured many pokemon, competed in many gym battles, even won a few leagues; however, no matter what it was, it was never enough to secure him the title he'd always dreamed of having.

….. _Beep_ …..

The noise from the heart monitor was unbearable by this point. He had been in here for so long with only constant beeps to keep him company that it was driving him insane. It only served to make him want to die faster.

And the noise wasn't even the worst part.

It was dying alone in a hospital with no one there to see him off in his last moments. Amazing health likely resulting from all of his traveling had granted him a long life, and 'allowed' him to outlive his friends, family, and the pokemon he'd befriended throughout his years.

He had been such an idiot. He sacrificed _so much_ for his goal, but never achieved it.

He missed them all, his mom, Pikachu, friends, heck, even Team Rocket at this point.

' _Where did I go wrong?'_

 _…..Beep….._

Was it just that his dream was impossible to reach? That was a possibility, considering his father and grandfather also had the same dream but never succeeded.

Maybe he should have gone about it differently. Now that he thought about it, didn't he say at the beginning of his journey that he would catch all the pokemon in the world? He never did achieve that. Is that where he went wrong? The most pokemon he had caught in any given region had been a mere 12—barely enough to complete two separate teams. If he had caught and trained more pokemon, then he would have been able to use more powerful pokemon in the leagues, maybe he'd even have won a few more championships. After all, his most powerful pokemon were the ones that were fully evolved, prime examples being Charizard and Sceptile.

….. _Beep….._

That had been another mistake on his part—evolution. Most of his pokemon never evolved. He could understand Pikachu. After that humiliating defeat at the hands of Lieutenant Surge, of course he would want to prove himself without evolving. If that had never happened, then maybe Pikachu would have been a raichu at some point.

Bulbasaur had never evolved into an ivysaur because he thought he had not been ready, but hadn't that meant it was planning to evolve eventually? The rest of his pokemon never even gotten the chance to evolve. The problem hadn't been their levels, since they were able to take on pokemon that would have usually been stronger than them.

….. _Beep….._

His third major mistake was that he hadn't trained as much as he should have. In all of his time in Kanto, he hadn't trained independently with his pokemon until a month before the Indigo League. He also hadn't trained during the time after until arriving in Hoenn.

' _Wow, I really wasn't as good as I thought.'_

…

' _If only I could've changed everything.'_

He closed his eyes, ready to leave his regrets behind in this life; he couldn't believe he was going to die with so many. The only upside to finally passing was being reunited with everyone he'd ever cared about again.

Deciding he didn't really need any final words, Ash Ketchum took his final breath.

 _…...Beeeeeeeeeeepppppppppp…..._

 **(?)**

When Ash died, he was expecting to be greeted into the afterlife by all his loved ones or even Arceus himself. He wasn't expecting Heaven to look like an empty, black void.

"Where the heck am I?" he whispered lowly.

He tried walking— _err,_ _floating_ — around, but found nothing else.

"Soooo, this is what Hell looks like. Great, this must be for all those bikes I never paid back. Other than that, I can't think of any other reasons for being here. Kinda disappointed that I'm not gonna see everyone again." he spoke nonchalantly but with a bit of disappointment of course.

At least he wasn't in pain anymore. That was great. It was probably the only reason he wasn't freaking out by now.

"You are not in the place of suffering, little one, nor are you dead." a new voice spoke from behind.

The voice spooked Ash and prompted him to turn around. There in front of him, was the god of pokemon himself that he had befriended so many years ago.

"Arceus." Ash whispered slowly in awe.

"Ash, it _has_ been a while, hasn't it."

"Wh-What's going on? Why am I here? Where's everyone else?"

"Relax little one, I am simply here to grant you your request."

"Request? What request?"

"Well, to go back and change everything of course."

Ash was currently having a hard time comprehending what was going on. This morning, he was reminiscing his life and getting ready to die. He _did_ die. Now, here he was in who knows where, having a conversation with Arceus himself, who was telling him that he could actually go back and change his pokemon journey.

That was, well, that was great really. He could go back in time and change all those mistakes. With the foresight he had now, he could stop himself from looking like an idiot in front of all his friends. But most importantly of all, he could actually become a pokemon master this time. There was just one thing bugging him.

"Why are you doing this for me?" Ash questioned.

"To put it simply, I decided to give you this opportunity to thank you for returning the jewel of life to me."

To say the least, Ash was stunned. "I-I don't know what to say. THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU." Even in his old age, Ash still had lots of energy.

After that little outburst, Arceus looked a little embarrassed. " Y-Yes, well, I'll have Dialga and Palkia send you back. Although the act might drain their energy for a while, they are willing to do this for you." Suddenly, the temporal and spatial pokemon were floating next to Arceus.

"Thank you, Dialga, Palkia" Ash said.

This is just what Ash wanted. He could really try again. This time, there would be no messing up. He would catch more pokemon, as many as he saw if that's what it took. He'd find out why they weren't evolving and fix it. This time, he would really do it. Nothing would stop him.

Ash stopped his internal monologue when he noticed that he was surrounded by pink and blue wall of light. "Thank you, all of you."

"Good luck, Ash." Arceus said in farewell while both Dialga and Palkia roared.

And then, he was gone.

 **A/N: Finally, the first chapter is done. This is my first story, and while I think it came out pretty good, please tell me what you think. Also, please critique so I can improve. Rating will be T because as I get better at writing the story will become more serious.**


End file.
